The journalist's silver spoon

When Prof. Steffens asked in class today “Are we more equal than others because we’re journalists?” my knee-jerk answer was

“Heck yes. I just spend a lot of money on this degree, and it better count for something.”

Wow. I know. It sounds elitist and snobby, right?

I’ve always imagined that old-school journalists were blue-collar guys who wore fedoras with press badges in them. They rolled up their shirt, smoked the strongest cigarettes, drank the blackest coffee, and didn’t have a college education. And because they were the Everyman, they had their pulse on what the people really wanted. They had it out for the elites, which is, I think, one of the great things about journalism. (Just watch the movie Newsies.) This is what drew me to journalism. (Plus, I really wanted a fedora.)

But when I got to college, I was reading Chaucer and Aristotle, having conversations debating the existence of God, and writing words like "usurp." Not exactly the dingy, earthy newsroom I expected.

I don’t believe that journalists are the aristocracy for the people. I think they’ve become just plain aristocracy.

In two months, I’ll be a college-educated woman. I come from a college-educated family. But most of the country doesn’t. The American Association of University Women says that in 2003, only 25 percent of Americans had a college degree.

I think that many of us would agree that we come from semi-privileged backgrounds, at least. And while my salary won’t show it when I graduate, there’s a lot of room for high-paying jobs in the business. So when we, as privileged, college-educated journalists set the agenda, are we setting one that really matters to Everyman?

I’m not so sure anymore. Maybe that accounts for the decline in readership. Maybe that’s why Dan Rather said in a speech on March 12 to South by Southwest Interactive that “journalism has lost its guts,” and “more journalists have become lapdogs instead of watchdogs.” Maybe we, as human beings and as journalists, just have a tendency to empathize with people who are more like us—the powerful interviewing the powerful, as Prof. Steffens said.

As I finish writing this, I realize it’s pretty gloomy. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I think we can still write for the Everyman, and maybe civic journalism is the answer—not so that journalists can loose power, but so that the people can gain it.